Monthly Archives: November 2024

The Golden Bridge

November 14th, 2024

The breakfast at the hotel is good but since it is a wellness spa, it lacks food items that are considered guilty pleasures.  I remind myself, after last night’s culinary tour, I should be eating a healthy breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed out to Sunworld’s Ba Na Hills, an amusement park sitting on top of a mountain not too far from Da Nang. I must admit, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, I have never seen anything like it before and kept wondering, was this park made for Instagram?

We boarded a cable car that currently holds the world record for the longest nonstop cable care ride in the world to the top of the mountain.  The ride up and down the mountain was probably the best part of the park.  The views were spectacular with beautiful views of the jungle and at times waterfalls.

After arriving, we crossed the golden bridge, probably one of the more photographed attractions at the park. Unfortunately, it was crowded, it was too crowded, and people were pushing.   It was difficult to get a decent picture of the bridge.   Ironically, the pictures and videos advertising the park always show the bridge as being empty or almost empty.   The experience was different from what was advertised. Continue reading →

Hoi An

November 13, 2024

We booked two back-to-back tours in Hoi An, right after we finished our brief historic tour of Hoi An, we started our food tour.   Our first stop was White Rose restaurant where we learned how to make the white rose dumpling.  You can white rose dumplings in a lot of restaurants in Hoi An and those dumplings all come the White Rose restaurant.   The staff makes thousands of dumplings per day.  We got a demonstration and then taught how to make our own.  Let’s just say, our white rose dumplings were not as pretty as those being made by the staff, but we enjoyed eating them.

We then stopped at another ancient house.   The owner was talking about the house and how it had been in his family for generations.  He has a workshop and creates silver jewelry, unfortunately, neither of us were interested in buying any jewelry.  We found a nice set of chopsticks which we bought, and Sophon bought a couple of souvenirs for his family.

It was then on to try Cao Lau, a regional dish made with noodles, pork, greens and broth. Although it sounds simple, it is complex and delicious.  This is a legendary dish, guides and guidebooks talk about how the recipe for the noodles is closely guarded family recipe.  The ash in the noodles comes from a tree grown on nearby islands and the water used to make the noodles is from an ancient well.   There are even stories about the name.  Cao Lau means “high floor”, which is where the more successful merchants sat while eating their noodles.   Who knows how much of this is real and how much of it is folk lore, Cao Lau is good!

Continue reading →

Tam Tam Cafe

November 13th, 2024

Hoi An is an ancient city in central Vietnam known for its charm and atmosphere.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I have been to Hoi An a few times and I have fond memories of walking the streets, visiting the shops and galleries, hanging out at the restaurants and sitting on the balcony of the Tam Tam cafe while having a few Tiger beers.   Unfortunately, as we headed back to our hotel, I felt extremely disappointed.

Let me say upfront that Hoi An is a wonderful place to visit. It is full of charm, interesting shops and good restaurants. However, since my last visit 15 years ago, the area around Hoi An has been built up, there was a huge park/resort built on the island in the middle of the river, and everything felt more commercial and a lot more crowded.

Our first stop in Hoi An was a silk factory where we got a five-minute demonstration on how silk is made, it was interesting but then suddenly, we are getting pressured to buy silk products as we are taken from one room featuring different silk products. Unfortunately, I see this a lot where you get a short demo and suddenly it becomes a high-pressure sales pitch and if you do by something, the tour guide is collecting a commission as you exit.  As we left the shop, I pulled our tour aside and let him know that we weren’t interested in shopping. Continue reading →

We got up and had our last breakfast at the Park Hyatt.  We both discussed how we were going to miss the hotel breakfast.

After checking out, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh airport.  As we sat and waited for our Vietnam Airlines flight 126 to Da Nang, I people watched.  I guess the latest trend is to wear crocs with hole fillers as well as for teenage girls to carry stuffed animals. I spotted a few women in their twenties doing this and thought, you can get away doing that in your teens but mid-twenties?

The flight was just over an hour long and it was uneventful.  We arrived in Da Nang, met our guide and headed to the TIA Wellness hotel.  As we drove to the hotel, the first thing I noticed was that the hotel wasn’t in Da Nang nor was it in Hoi An.  There wasn’t much around the resort except for other resorts, including Marriott, Wyndham and Radisson.  I guess we were going to be eating hotel food the next few days.

I typically don’t book spa hotels and I thought it would be fun to do something different. but the hotel was right on the beach and the villa had a private pool. The hotel included two wellness treatments, including massages, per day. Continue reading →